Lynn Left With Wyndam Regrets

David Lynn admits he now regrets his decision not to play in last week's Wyndham Championship - a move that could have cost him a Ryder Cup debut.

Following his remarkable runner-up finish in the USPGA Championship, the 38-year-old from Stoke was offered an invite to stay on in America and compete on the PGA Tour the following week.

He turned down that opportunity in order to return to Britain but, in doing so, forfeited the chance to keep alive his unlikely Ryder Cup qualification hopes.

Had he finished joint 46th or better at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, Lynn would still be in the running for an automatic place in Europe's side.

Sergio Garcia won the event to make certain of his spot, but Lynn might well come up an agonising 0.68 world ranking points short if he wins this week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

There are still two wild cards for captain Jose Maria Olazabal to hand out next Monday, but one of those is surely ear-marked for Ian Poulter and Lynn fears his lack of experience will count against him.

"In hindsight I made a mistake - I should have played last week," Lynn said.

"But I think I can be forgiven because of where my head was at."

He was approached by a PGA Tour official soon after he had given the performance of his life at Kiawah Island - it earned him over £557,000 and a place in The Masters - to be told his top 10 finish qualified him for the Wyndham.

"I said I was going home. I was prepared for being out there for one week, not two, and I'm a bit like that when I get something in my head," Lynn continued.

"I actually got a lift with Padraig Harrington to New York on his private plane and he was asking me why on earth didn't I go.

"Jamie Donaldson had also mentioned it to me on the range before the final round (the Irish Open champion did play in Greensboro), but it was only when I got home and looked at the way the points were that I realised I should have gone.

"It was probably a time when I needed somebody at my side saying 'Hang on a minute'."

The world ranking points on offer at Gleneagles were enough to lift Lynn from 13th into the 10th and last automatic spot until Swede Peter Hanson, now sure of his second cap, withdrew on Monday afternoon.

First place points came down from 32 to 30 as a result and neither Lynn nor Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello can now catch 10th-placed Martin Kaymer - only Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts can with a top two finish.

"I guess if I win it puts forward a good case (for a wild card) on current form," Lynn added.

"But there's guys you have to look at like Harrington - I know he didn't have a great match by his standards last time (he has actually won only two of his last 13 games), but he's still a guy you can't overlook because he's won three majors and has played a few Ryder Cups.

"Would you pick a rookie over experience? Experience means a lot, I think."

It is actually uncapped Colsaerts, the Volvo World Match Play champion, rather than Harrington who is being widely tipped for a wild card if he does not get in automatically.

Just to be part of the conversation shows what Lynn has achieved, however.

"It's nice to be talked about, but I always knew at the start of the Ryder Cup campaign that you've got no chance of playing when you're not in all four majors and all four world championships," he said.

"You're giving too many good players too much of a head start. I played in one out of the eight - and got in that only just."

Ryder Cup Garcia Wins Wyndham

Rainy weather left Sergio Garcia stuck in central North Carolina for an extra day. Turns out, it was worth the hassle -- because he's leaving with his first PGA TOUR victory in four years.

Garcia claimed a two-stroke win Monday in the water-logged Wyndham Championship for his first victory on tour since the 2008 PLAYERS Championship.

He finished with a 66 to wind up at 18-under 262, claim $936,000 in prize money and maybe seal a spot on the European Ryder Cup team.

"I think there were a lot of things going on. It shows a lot to me," Garcia said. "Hopefully, this will secure my spot on the Ryder Cup team, and winning is always nice."

Tim Clark was at 16 under following his 67 in the final PGA TOUR event before the FedExCup Playoffs, and Bud Cauley finished 15 under after his 68.

Garcia led both after the third round and when the fourth round was held up overnight due to a persistent downpour.

He had three straight late-round birdies after a bogey briefly dropped him into a tie for the lead, and cruised to his eighth career PGA TOUR victory.

Garcia began the decisive surge on the par-4 No. 13, plopping his chip roughly a foot from the flagstick and tapping it in for birdie.

He added another birdie on No. 15 -- a pretty chip from a greenside bunker left him with a 5-foot putt -- and followed that with another birdie on the par-3 16th after his tee shot stopped closer than 2 feet from the stick. He added a birdie on No. 17 to move to 19 under, leaving his bogey on the final hole inconsequential.

It was a bit of redemption for the 32-year-old Spaniard, who in his last appearance in Greensboro in 2009 held a share of the lead after three rounds and was up by three strokes midway through the round, but let it slip away. He finished in fourth place.

Yet he didn't necessarily come back thinking Donald Ross' course at Sedgefield Country Club owed him one.

"That year, I was pretty much in control and I lost it myself," Garcia said. "The course didn't do anything wrong to me."

This time, he finished strong to give a huge boost to his Ryder Cup candidacy. The 10 automatic qualifiers will be set following the Johnny Walker Invitational with Jose Maria Olazabal making two captain's picks.

"We'll see when the team comes out, but I think my chances are a little better now," Garcia said.

Nicolas Colsaerts -- whose 66 left him at 13 under -- wants a spot, too.

"When you play rounds like these and you commit to tournaments and you get yourself in position like this and make the most of it, it just shows how much you want it," Colsaerts said.

In addition to the quests by players on both sides for Ryder Cup selections, much of the focus -- as it always is at the PGA TOUR's annual late-season stop in central North Carolina -- was on the chase to make the FedExCup Playoffs, which begin in a few days at The Barclays.

But everything wound up taking a back seat to the weather, as heavy rains dumped more than 2 inches of water on the Sedgefield course on Sunday.

In the final round of the Wyndham Championship, Tim Clark holes a 41-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th hole, securing a solo second place finish.

The final round was halted at roughly 3 p.m. with 38 players still on the course and seven players within three shots of Garcia. The decision came 2 hours later to hold off until Monday morning -- the first Monday finish in Greensboro since 1983.

Clark, a South African and local favourite who played college golf at North Carolina State, matched Garcia at 15 under with a birdie on his third hole of the day, the par-4 No. 8. Garcia moved to 16 under with a birdie on the par-4 No. 11, but he gave that stroke back with a bogey on the next hole after missing a 10-foot putt for par.

Moments later, Chad Campbell joined them atop the leaderboard after his third consecutive birdie came on the 17th. Then Garcia made his big move.

"It was going to be tough to catch (Garcia), the way he finished," said Clark, who moved to 54th on the points list after not even being in the Playoff picture a few weeks ago. This was his fourth top-15 finish since late June.

Among the Playoffs hopefuls, Heath Slocum was the only one to start outside the top 125 but play his way into The Barclays. His final-round 71 left him at 7 under for the tournament and pushed him to No. 124.

"Every little point helps, every little dollar helps," Slocum said.

Jason Dufner could have taken over the top spot on the points list with a victory, but he finished five strokes back and wound up leapfrogging Rory McIlroy for No. 2 behind Tiger Woods. He came in at No. 3, the highest-ranked player in the field.

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Leader Garcia Delayed at Wyndham

The Wyndham Championship will be concluded on Monday after the final round was delayed by heavy rain in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Play will resume at 9am in the morning - 2pm BST - with Spain's Sergio Garcia one shot ahead and 14 holes to go.

The Spaniard, needing a top-three finish to move back into a qualifying position for next month's Ryder Cup in Chicago, was one ahead overnight and moved to 15 under par with a tee shot to five feet on the short third.

South African Tim Clark twice caught him with birdies at the second and fourth, but then ran up a bogey six at the long next to fall back alongside Americans Jason Dufner and Bud Cauley.

Garcia was just short of the green in two on the par five when officials brought the players off the course.

Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, also still in with a chance of automatic selection for Europe, moved from 17th into a tie for fourth by going to the turn in a three under 32, but a bogey at the par three 12th saw him slip back to joint ninth.

Unlike Garcia, Colsaerts is also playing the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles starting on Thursday. That is the final counting event before 10 players qualify and captain Jose Maria Olazabal adds two wild cards.

It was hoped to resume play at 5pm at first and the players went onto the driving range to prepare for that, but were then told that the course was not ready. A total of 2.2 inches of rain had fallen in the last 24 hours.

Garcia said afterwards: "It's going to be a long day.

"There's nothing you can do. The weather is one thing we can't control so it's a case of being patient. We'll see what happens."

Final round leaderboard:

US unless stated

-15 S Garcia (Spn) 4 holes

-14 B Cauley 4 holes

-14 T Clark (SA) 5 holes 

-14 J Dufner 5 holes

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Garcia Leads into Sunday at Wyndham

Sergio Garcia shot a 4-under 66 on Saturday to take the lead at 14-under 196 after three rounds at the Wyndham Championship.

It's a familiar spot for the Spaniard, who shared the third-round lead in 2009 but wound up finishing fourth after falling a stroke shy of a three-man playoff.

"Eighteen pars are not going to win it," Garcia said. "You have to make some birdies out there. ... I don't have a number. I'm not going to say I need to shoot 4 under, 5 under, or whatever. Someone might go out and shoot 9 under, and 5 under's not good enough."

Tim Clark and Bud Cauley were a stroke back, and Jason Dufner, who would become the FedExCup No. 1 with a victory, Harris English and Carl Pettersson were at 12 under in the last event before the FedExCup Playoffs.

Dufner shot a 63 -- the day's best round. Cauley had a 66, Clark shot a 67, and English and Pettersson had 68s.

Garcia -- whose second-round 63 marked his best PGA TOUR round in a decade -- made a move with consecutive birdies midway through the back nine that briefly helped him leapfrog his playing competitor, Clark.

Garcia plopped his tee shot 4 feet from the flagstick on the par-3 12th and tapped in, then followed that with a birdie on No. 13 to move to 14 under. Then, after just his second bogey of the tournament, he bounced back with a birdie on No. 15.

If he can keep it rolling for one more round, he might claim his first win on TOUR since 2008 -- and strengthen his chances to make the European Ryder Cup team.

"Winning means a lot, no matter what," Garcia said.

Clark might have had the lead comfortably to himself, had he not missed short birdie putts on consecutive holes on the back nine.

Instead, he'll have to settle for a share of second place with Cauley, who had three straight late birdies.

"Today, the scoring was out there and obviously, the leaders didn't really get away from anyone," Clark said. "I felt like we all could have gone a little bit lower, but it's going to be the same tomorrow, really. A shootout. There's so many guys, probably, still in this tournament."

It's usually a birdiefest every August at this Donald Ross course, but for most players, it seems to be playing a little tougher this year. The cut of 1 under was the event's highest since it moved to Sedgefield in 2008.

The average winner's score in four years at this course has been 19 under, and it sure looks as if this year's champ -- whomever it is -- will approach that number.

Webb Simpson, a native North Carolinian and college star here who won the U.S. Open in June, won it at 18 under last year and came back to defend a title for the first time in his short career.

The only player with consecutive victories in this tournament has his name on the winner's trophy: Sam Snead, who did it twice -- in 1949-50 and 1955-56.

Simpson started one stroke back and a short while after his birdie on the par-5 5th -- the easiest, and most frequently eagled, hole on the course this week -- was part of a six-man logjam that shared the lead at 12 under. Joining him were English, Clark, Garcia, Pettersson and second-round leader Jimmy Walker.

English was the first to backslide with a bogey on No. 11. Walker fell off the pace with a bogey on No. 10.

Simpson ran into big trouble late in his round with consecutive bogeys, sending his tee shot on No. 15 into some deep rough and then three-putting on No. 16, and his 71 dropped him four strokes back.

Dufner, who at No. 3 is the top player in the FedExCup standings in the Wyndham field, finished strong with birdies on three of his final four holes to sneak up the leaderboard.

"Kind of what I needed to get back in this tournament, post a low score and kind of be in the mix tomorrow," Dufner said.

Justin Leonard, who shot a 64, was one of the biggest movers. He started at 4 under and used a steady stream of birdies to make his climb. He needs a high finish to earn enough points to qualify for the Playoffs, which begin next week at The Barclays.

"I know I need a top-three, top-four finish and ... I certainly gave myself a better chance," Leonard said.

Jeff Overton had the first hole-in-one of the week -- and his first on the TOUR -- on No. 12, using a 6-iron to ace the 196-yard hole. After finishing his round, he tweeted: "What a sweet shot. Too bad i didnt win a car."